Monday, July 27, 2009

Kitchen Update

It is officially the end of the fourth day of the “kitchen floor redo”. The two guys Mitch and Zak have been doing a stellar job. Here’s the grueling detailed breakdown…

Wednesday, they came and started taking out the old tile. Just like we already knew – the tile had not been installed correctly. It appears that the mortar had not been mixed correctly and did not have enough water. So instead of the tile sitting down in the mortar and the mortar holding the tile to the floor – the tile just sat on top of the mortar and never adhered.

To make matters worse, the detra mat had not been installed correctly either. Of course, that means that it all had to come out too. And just to add that extra measure of difficulty, everything had to be cut around the cabinets because the cabinets were sitting on top of the tile. A real bummer. But Mitch and Zak had no trouble and got it all done in a day.

Thursday, all of the new subfloor was delivered (using the more traditional “backer board” instead of the detra this time…) and Mitch and Zak got it all cut and installed (using mortar to hold it to the original plywood subfloor and about 1000 screws just to make sure it stays put).

Friday, the first half of the tile was put down. They couldn’t do the entire floor because they didn’t want to work themselves into a corner and have to spend the night. Although when I offered some beer, they briefly considered it. So the stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher were moved out of the way and the kitchen portion of the floor was put down.

Today, the refrigerator and stove were moved back into place and the remaining tile was put down.

All that is left is to put down the grout (should get done tomorrow) and then I get to re-install all of the trim work. Of course, I haven’t even bought the trim yet so that’s going to cause a small delay! But I should be able to pick it up this week and get it painted and have it all ready to install this weekend. If everything goes well, it’ll be completely finished by the end of the weekend!